The Willows Summary

The first-person narrator and his companion, a Swedish man, are on a canoe trip, intending to travel the entire length of the Danube River to the Black Sea. The river is in flood and has swiftly carried them into Hungary and a completely wild and uninhabited area. As far as the eye can see, there is nothing on either bank but limitless clusters of large willow bushes.

They decide to stop overnight on one of the many small islands dotting the river, and on setting up camp are almost immediately confronted by two odd sights that serve to set the tone for their stay. A strange creature, almost like an otter, is seen floating down the river turning over and over, while shortly afterward they see a “flying apparition” traveling rapidly down the river, resembling a man in a boat who seems to be making the sign of the cross and shouting wildly at them. These odd events serve as a stimulus to the narrator’s imagination, and he realizes that the beauty of the wild landscape also contains weirdness, even terror, such as the howling wind, raging water, and especially the constantly moving willow branches.

Later that night, the narrator undergoes stranger encounters. Peering out of his tent, he sees in the moonlight a column of odd shapes or beings rising out of a clump of willows and disappearing into the sky, the figures appearing to melt in and out of one another. The sight is so strange and majestic that the narrator almost gets down on his knees to worship. Later that night in his tent, he hears a pattering sound, as of innumerable tiny steps, coming from outside his tent, and also feels as if a great weight is pressing down on him. He goes out and looks around and realizes that the willows seem to have moved closer to the tent during the night.

The next morning, the narrator hopes to have his staid and unimaginative traveling companion convince him that he has been dreaming, but instead he hears the astonishing revelation that a canoe paddle is missing and there is a tear in the bottom of the canoe. Adding to this ominous note, the...

(The entire section is 847 words.)

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